BaL 21.10.23 - Brahms Clarinet Trio in A minor

[richardfinegold]

I have to confess to being slightly disappointed by this BAL. There is a thin line between friendly conversation and inconsequential natter and I think on this occasion it was a line which was breached too often for unadulterated pleasure. However, my main "beef" was with the curt dismissal of period instruments in this repertoire. Natasha Loges seemed to equate historically informed performance practice with those recordings which sounded like they were recorded in Brahms day.

I am not clear on that last sentence. Can you further elaborate?

[richardfinegold]

This work tends to be coupled with the Clarinet Quintet, so I’ve been listening to a few recordings of that work lately. I few the Quintet as the greater of the two, one reason being the many harmonies that Brahms elicited from the Quartet acting as a foil to the melody “soloist”.
I find this also to be true of the Piano Quintet, which is a very different work, but similar in that harmonies of the soloist interact in interesting ways with those of the Quartet.
Brahms String Quartets, otoh, while filled with great music, tend to not work so well for me. Other writers tend to refer to “clotted” harmonies and congested rhythms. I just think it’s interesting that for me at least Brahms best use of the String Quartet was as a foil to another instrument

[Sir Velo]

I am not clear on that last sentence. Can you further elaborate?

I took Natasha Loges to mean that she considered those recordings made in the 1940s and 50s to be historic and closer to Brahms by virtue of the fact that several of the performers either knew Brahms or had been brought in the tradition. The problem with that approach for me is that the instruments on which they played had been "improved" from Brahms' day and, of course, the recordings themselves frankly leave a lot to be desired from a sound quality perspective.

[CallMePaul]

I have to confess to being slightly disappointed by this BAL. There is a thin line between friendly conversation and inconsequential natter and I think on this occasion it was a line which was breached too often for unadulterated pleasure. However, my main "beef" was with the curt dismissal of period instruments in this repertoire. Natasha Loges seemed to equate historically informed performance practice with those recordings which sounded like they were recorded in Brahms' day. For some reason, only the early 90s Hacker et al performance was considered, while the superior 2019 performance by Marie Ross and colleagues on actual instruments from the 1870s was completely overlooked, despite it being readily available and in magnificent sound. The instruments on this recording are an absolute joy: pianist Petra Somlai performs on an 1875 New York Steinway.to boot, while Ross plays with great sensitivity on a superbly creamy instrument which Muhlfeld would surely have loved.

Sounds fine to me, listening to excerpts on the Presto website (https://www.prestomusic.com/classica...et-trio-op-114).

I believe that some years ago Keith Puddy and Malcolm Martineau recorded the two sonatas, Puddy playing Muhlfeld's actual B-flat clarinet and Martineau a piano of similar vintage. The trio and quintet were not recorded as Muhlfeld's clarinet in A was deemed unrestorable. To my knowledge this has never been re-eleased.

[pastoralguy]

I found the Thea King recording on Hyperion this morning in a charity shop for 50p! It sounds absolutely gorgeous so I must listen again to find out what Ms. Loges objected to. It’s not a work I know at all so I’m looking forward to spinning it a few times.

[Barbirollians]

Sadly, the secondhand copy I got from Amazon was not that cheap but I agree with PG’s assessment and the performance of the clarinet quintet is outstanding too . One of those occasions where an extract dismissed on a BAL led to a great buy .